“Boyhood,” Richard Linklater’s intimate epic charting the growth and maturation of a boy from the age of 7 to 18 that was filmed over a period of 12 years was the winner of the Chicago Film Critics Association award for the Best Picture of 2014 in a ceremony held tonight. In addition to the top prize, the film won two other key awards with Linklater being named Best Director and Patricia Arquette voted Best Supporting Actress for her performance as the boy’s mother, who undergoes her own set of changes over that time.

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Two other films tied “Boyhood” for the number of awards received. “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” Wes Anderson’s whimsical comedy-drama about a concierge in a posh European hotel who becomes involved in intrigue while the world teeters on the brink of war earned Anderson the Original Screenplay prize and also won for Art Direction and tied for Best Cinematography.

“Whiplash,” the acclaimed indie drama charting the battle of wills between a highly ambitious musical prodigy and his teacher, both obsessed with perfection at all costs, saw its writer-director, Damien Chazelle, named Most Promising Filmmaker, co-star J.K. Simmons named Best Supporting Actor for his terrifying turn as the teacher and Tom Cross cited for Editing.

The other title with multiple wins, the hallucinatory black comedy “Birdman,” earned Michael Keaton the Best Actor award and also shared in the tie for the Cinematography prize.

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Among the other winners from the group, now in its 25th year, Julianne Moore was named Best Actress for her heartbreaking performance as a woman stricken with early-onset Alzheimer’s in “Still Alice,” author Gillian Flynn won the Adapted Screenplay award for the adaptation of her best-seller “Gone Girl,” rising star Jack O’Connell was named Most Promising Performer for his performances in the dramas “Starred Up” and “Unbroken” and Mica Levi won Best Original Score for the trippy soundscapes of “Under the Skin.” The Foreign-Language Film award went to the dark comedy “Force Majeure” and “The Lego Movie” took the prize for Animated Feature. Finally, “Life Itself,” Steve James’s celebration of the life and work of the late Roger Ebert, was named Best Documentary.
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Follow @ChicagoCritics on Twitter for organization and member news, as well as updates on the 2015 Chicago Critics Film Festival. The third annual Chicago Critics Film Festival will run May 1-7, 2015, at the Music Box Theatre. Screening information and special guest appearances will be announced as they are confirmed on both Twitter and ChicagoCriticsFilmFestival.com
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